Proud Pink Sky

Both queer as in gay and queer as in strange, this remarkable alternate history of 1990s Berlin from Barrett (Forget Yourself) follows William and Gareth, a young gay couple fleeing homophobic families in England for Berlin, and Cissie, a cis, straight mother of two whose husband brings their family to Berlin, known as “Gay Berlin” since it became an independent state and haven for homosexuals in an otherwise antagonistic world, for work. Both perspectives demonstrate the growing unrest within the city-state as underground movements work to destabilize the conservative leadership, which discourages experimentation and keeps nonbinary, polyamorous, and even straight people as a kind of underclass. Frequent use of Polari, a real but here fictionally embellished language used by gay people, at times may take the reader out of the story, though it is clearly well researched by Barrett. Also distracting are the twee names for places in Berlin: “Twinkstadt,” for example, or “Paw,” the area for bears. The reader is not meant to sympathize with the micro categorizations these areas enforce, but the irony is a bit over-the-top. The result is a gripping if somewhat heavy-handed work of speculative fiction. (Mar.)